• Subscribe to the Injury Center Mailing List
   

• Organizational Charts
   

• Injury Center Employment Opportunities  
   

• 10th Anniversary of CDC's Injury Center includes a timeline of the center's history, a video series about injury topics, and more.
   

• Injury is the leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults (CDC 2001).
   

• In 2000, more than 148,000 people died from injuries. Among them (Miniño et al. 2002):

  • 43,354 died from motor-vehicle crashes;
  • 29,350 died from suicide;
  • 16,765 died from homicide;
  • 13,322 died from unintentional falls;
  • 12,757 from unintentional poisonings;
  • 3,482 died from unintentional drowning;
  • 3,377 died from fires.  
     

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death (CDC 2001).
   

• Homicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 24 overall and the leading cause of death for African American males ages 15 to 34 (CDC 2001).
   

• In 2000, more than 29.5 million people were treated for injuries in U.S. emergency departments (CDC 2001).
   

• Injuries accounted for 37% of emergency department visits in 1999–2000 (Pastor et al. 2002).
   

• The rate of hospitalizations for injury per 10,000 population is significantly higher among elderly persons than among all other age groups (Hall and Ownings 2000).
   

• Each year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans survive a traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Sosin, Sniezek and Thurman 1996); 50,000 die from TBIs; and 80,000 to 90,000 experience onset of long-term disability (CDC 1999). An estimated 5.3 million Americans live with a permanent TBI-related disability (CDC 1999). 
   

• In 1988, the costs of injury were estimated at $182 billion. Inflated to 1995 dollars, costs approach $260 billion (Institute of Medicine 1999).
   

• Treatment of injuries and their long-term effects account for 12% of medical care spending, totaling $69 billion (in 1993 dollars) (Institute of Medicine 1999).
   

• Federal, state, and local government funds cover 28% of medical expenditures for injury. Private sources cover the remaining 72% (Rice, MacKenzie 1989).
   

• In 1985, the federal government paid $8.9 billion for medical care of injured persons, mainly through Medicare and Medicaid. It also paid $14.2 billion in disability and survivor benefits through Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, and the Veterans Administration (Rice, MacKenzie 1989).

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• Injury is a serious public health problem because of its impact on the health of Americans, including premature death, disability, and the burden on our health care system.
   

• Like diseases, injuries are preventable—they do not occur at random. CDC’s Injury Center uses the same scientific methods to prevent injuries that have been used to prevent disease: carefully describing the problem through surveillance, studying factors that increase or decrease risk for injury, designing and evaluating intervention strategies that target these risk factors, and taking steps to ensure that proven strategies are implemented in communities nationwide.
   

• The public health community has the experience as well as the public and private partners necessary to research, develop, and communicate effective methods to prevent injury.
   

• Injury prevention strategies focus primarily on environmental design (e.g., road construction that permits optimum visibility), product design, human behavior, education, and legislative and regulatory requirements that support environmental and behavioral change.
   

• Public health efforts to prevent injuries have been highly successful. For example, 240,000 lives were saved between 1966 and 1990 because of improved motor vehicle and highway design, increased use of safety belts and motorcycle helmets, and enforcement of laws regarding drinking and driving and speeding. Similar results are possible with other types of injuries.

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CDC conducts and supports research about causes, risk factors, and preventive measures for injuries outside the workplace, including:

• Unintentional injuries related to falls, fires, drowning, poisoning, motor vehicle crashes (including those involving pedestrians), sports and recreational activities, and playgrounds and day-care settings;
   

• Intentional injuries related to homicide, suicide, youth violence, intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and sexual violence;
   

• Improving health and quality of life after injuries and preventing secondary conditions among people with disabilities.

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• Fact Sheets about injury topics include quick facts, prevention strategies, highlights of CDC activities, and more.
    
• CDC Injury Fact Book 2000–2001 provides comprehensive injury data and describes in depth CDC’s efforts to prevent injuries and associated deaths and disabilities. 
   
• Injury Research Agenda identifies the research issues of highest priority for CDC. 
   
• Injury in America: Defining Risk...Increasing Safety provides an overview of injury prevention and control at CDC.
   
• State Injury Profiles contain maps and tables of injury deaths and death rates for each state in the nation.
    
• Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action looks at proven and promising violence prevention practices. Available in Spanish and English. 
   
• Facts About Concussion and Brain Injury explains what happens after a brain injury, how to ease recovery, and where to get help and information. Available in English and Spanish. 
   
• Youth Suicide Prevention Programs: A Resource Guide assesses programs to prevent suicide among adolescents and young adults. 
   
• National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety offers ideas for encouraging children to explore their environment by walking while reducing their risk of pedestrian injury. 
   
• Guide to Applying for Injury Research Grants provides members of the scientific community with guidance for applying to NCIPC for research grants.
   
• Healthy People 2010 Objectives Injury Prevention 
   
• NCIPC Publications Order Form 

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CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [Online]. (2001). National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (producer). Available from: URL: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars. [26 Sep 2002].

CDC. Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: A Report to Congress. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 1999.

Hall MJ, Owings MF.  Hospitalizations for injury: United States, 1996.  Advance data from vital and health statistics; no 318.  Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics; 2000.

Institute of Medicine; Bonnie RJ, Fulco CE, Liverman CT (editors). Reducing the Burden of Injury: Advancing Prevention and Treatment. Washington (DC): National Academy Press; 1999.

Pastor PN, Makuc DM, Reuben C, Xia H. Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans. Health, United States, 2002. Hyattsville (MD): National Center for Health Statistics. 2002.

Rice DP, MacKenzie EJ, and Associates. Cost of Injury in the United States: A Report to Congress. San Francisco (CA): Institute for Health & Aging, University of California, and Injury Prevention Center, The Johns Hopkins University; 1989.

Sosin DM, Sniezek JE, Thurman DJ. Incidence of mild and moderate brain injury in the United States, 1991. Brain Injury 1996;10:47–54.